Mr. Belvedere II

Hey fellas,

I have a 69' 440 with the stock bottom end. Mileage unknown it makes consistant compression in the 140 lb. range in all cylinders. I was wondering if anyone knew if it's possible to upgrade rod bolts one at a time with the engine still in the car? The rod bolts are always the weak link in any bottom end. Has anyone done this or had experience with swapping out the rod bolts with the engine in the car?? Pros/Cons ?? any help would be great. Thanks

67hemidart

My shop told me you need to recondition the rods to change the rod bolts . Also would rather pull the motor than try that on my back . Hope this is helpful

Gorts 5th

why do you think the rod bolt's are about to fail?
from what my brother tells me you have a solid lower end on that 440, if you where a chevey guy ok change em! but i wouldn't be changing rod bolts just to increase lower end durability that's already durable!.
where are you shifting at 6400 what type rpm's you running 3000?
for the street it should be alright . and for durability i cant see a mopar failing from a under strength d rod bolt they just didn't build them that way
if you think the lower end is bad then the top end isnt going to be any better.
rebuild the whole motor then you can see what's failing ..
if that motor is a 69 440 you have a really solid bottom end especially for the street.

TVLynn

It can be done. I would not suggest doing it that way. The stock rod bolts should be plenty strong enough unless you are planning 7500 RPM on a regular basis

Mr. Belvedere II

Thanks for the quick response fellas. My main concern is that I'm planning on swapping out the 906's for some 440 source stealth aluminum heads. The heads should put my combo somewhere in the 525-550 hp range and those rod bolts are 45+ years old. The engine runs strong!! I'm just trying to be pro-active.I'd hate to blow it up if I could have prevented it for the measly price of some rod bolts.The max I'd rev it to would be 5,500 rpm. Anything past that and I'm on the downward side of the power curve for my combo. In your experiences the stock rod bolts should be ok with the numbers I've provided ??

TVLynn

I think you are expecting too much with just a head swap.. What kind of cam are you planning on using ?

Mr. Belvedere II

I was told by the previous owner it has a solid flat tappett cam with 282 duration.From what I can tell he was being honest tho i've never pulled the cam to check the numbers.
It has an adjustable rocker setup off a max wedge car. It has a 750 holley with vacuum secondaries and an edelbrock performer RPM intake on the induction side.On the exhaust side it's long tube ceramic coated hedman headers into 3" collectors to Flowmaster 44's. Ignition is a Mopar orange box with a magnetic pickup style dist. Do you think 525hp is far off ??